Should the US have dropped the atomic bombs in 1946? Background to the bombing: After much bitter and bloody fighting between the Japanese and the Allies, with heavy losses on both sides on April 1, 1945, the Allies invaded the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. This battle involved a massive number of allied ships, vehicles and men. The allied victory there showed that Japan could not win the war. It also proved, however, that invasion of the Japanese homeland would cause massive casualties ‘on both sides. This battie resulted in the highest number of casualties in the pacific ‘Arena during WW2. Okinawa only served to confirm everyone's idea of how the final battle for the main islands of Japan would be need to be fought, with great loss resulting for both sides. Just at this point, the atomic bomb became a reality. The first successful test of the atomic weapon was held on July I6, 1945. The United States now had the choice of using it to try to end the war in another way. All other forms of attack, from the grim battle for Okinawa to the terrible fire bombing of Japan's cities, had failed to deter the political and military leaders in Téky6. Perhaps the atomic bomb would resolve the crisis without a need for invasion President Truman, who had already left for Potsdam to meet with Churchill and Stalin, left instructions that the bomb was not to be used against Japan until after the Allies had agreed on and issued a declaration. The Potsdam Declaration of July 26 issued by the Allied powers and calling for “unconditional surrender," was not acceptable to the Japanese military, despite the declaration’s threat that failure to surrender would be met by "complete destruction" of the military and the "utter devastation of the Japanese home land." Following ten days of Japanese silence, the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, on the city of Hiroshima, It was reported the next day to the Japanese Army General Staff that "the whole city of Hiroshima was destroyed instantly by a single bomb.” On August 8 the army was further rocked by the news that the Russians, who had remained neutral to Japan throughout the war, had attacked Japanese forces on the Asian mainland. But despite the prime minister's insistence that Japan must accept surrender, the army insisted on total, last-ditch resistance. The news, midway through this conference, that the city of Nagasaki had also been destroyed by another atomic bomb. Finally, the Japanese prime minister and his allies agreed that the only course was to have the emperor break the deadlock by expressing his view. The emperor's statement that Japan's suffering was unbearable to him and that he wished for surrender broke the military's opposition and began the process of ending the war in the Pacific.